Star Book Review: Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell

My first novel by Jill Mansell came in at number 15 on the Chicklit Club’s Ultimate 100 Chicklit Collection and I would not deny it any of its rave reviews. Although I’m still not sure what Miranda’s ‘'Big Mistake’ actually was, the story and its characters were certainly no mistake at all, with exciting and unusual plot points, often intersecting at various turns. I love books that intertwine as the story and characters did in Miranda’s Big Mistake and for the first 100 pages or so, I was anticipating the big she-bang of colliding characters. That’s not to say that the story was predictable because other than thinking that the characters paths’ would eventually cross, that was it. I did not know in what way or under which circumstances such an event might transpire.

Miranda is a very kind-hearted woman who works as an assistant to Fenn, a hairstylist with very A-List clientele. Even with her wild hair of blue and green, she’s so easy to fall in love with (as becomes very obvious with her many suitors throughout the novel); she’s the type of person who would quite literally give you half her sandwich even if it meant she’d go hungry later. She ends up meeting two men through a stint on a candid camera-type TV show, one of whom turns out to be the husband of her pregnant roommate, Chloe and another, Danny, who turns out to be an undercover reporter who had posed as the homeless man she took a liking to outside her salon. Determined to find a man who can be open and honest with her, Miranda finds love in a celebrity race car driver, Miles, who she meets at Fenn’s salon. However, he has a clichéd celebrity girlfriend, who is conveniently abroad during the time he and Miranda get to know one another. Will Miranda ever find her luck in love?

Meanwhile a very pregnant Chloe is working on regaining her independence and general sense of self after her husband, Greg, leaves her, demanding she have an abortion. Chloe takes up residence with Florence, her boss’s elderly mother and landlord to Miranda, to avoid the wrath of her own mother who blames Chloe for the entire debacle. Fenn begins to take a liking to Chloe the more time he spends around her, finding more and more excuses to invite her out with him. His reputation as a waif, model-dating player leaves him even more conflicted about these new emotions he’s feeling towards this pregnant woman.

Add a little to a lot of chaos into the mix, and you have the fun, fast-paced read that is the British chick lit novel, Miranda’s Big Mistake. I most definitely recommend checking out this book if you can. It’s hilarious and heartfelt, incorporating themes of love, revenge, scandal, good-byes, death and dying, grieving, new beginnings, friendship, kindness, loyalty, crazy hair, fast cars, good looking men and outlandish celebs. Miranda is like the girl next door. She grew on me and I found myself rooting for her the whole way through. I hope you do too! This was my first of many Jill Mansell books read.

4/5 Stars

For more information on Jill Mansell or any of her books, please visit:

http://www.jillmansell.co.uk/

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